I established a Facebook account in 2008. My motivation was ignoble: I wanted to distribute my journalism more widely. I have acquired since then just over four thousand “friends”—in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, the Middle East, and of course, closer to home. I have discovered the appeal of Facebook’s community—for example, the extraordinary emotional support that swells in virtual space when people come together online around a friend’s illness or life celebrations. Through its bedrock appeals to friendship, community, public identity, and activism—and its commercial exploitation of these values—Facebook is an unprecedented synthesis of corporate and public spaces. The corporation’s social contract with users is ambitious, yet neither its governance system nor its young ruler seem trustworthy. Then came this month’s initial public offering of stock—a ... Continue reading →

Moment of truth FEDERALISM AND ETHNICITY Many of the more alarmist scenarios involving federalism have seemed close in the past week. With each shutdown or violent incident, there is more talk of conspiracy and infiltration. People are quick to impute “ethnic” motivations to others. Some fears are reasonable and others exaggerated. For instance, some clashes described as “Newars” fighting with “Chhetris” or “Brahmins” with “Gurungs” can also be understood as bandha behaviour: someone calls a strike, someone defies it and is beaten up or has their vehicle burnt. But the willingness to see such incidents as primarily “ethnic” in nature is indicative of the present mood. It is a fraught moment. But it could also be productive. Although many are understandably sceptical about extending the ... Continue reading →

Ambassador Ryan Crocker announced he is stepping down as the US ambassador to Afghanistan. "We are all marked to some extent by the stamp of our generation, mine is that of the assassination in Sarajevo and all that flowed from it," Eden wrote. "It is impossible to read the record now and not feel that we had a responsibility for always being a lap behind.... Always a lap behind, a fatal lap." Skip to next paragraph But having a World War II mindset didn't prevent Eden and his French and Israeli allies from making a colossal error. The British-French intervention, which aimed to keep the canal open for oil shipments, under British and French ownership, ended in a ceasefire, with Egypt's President Gamel Abdel Nasser ... Continue reading →

at Durbarmargh, Kathmandnu. Continue reading →